1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, a job processing method, a printing system, a storage medium, and a program, which are capable of performing printing processes involving a plurality of copies.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a user presses a stop key during a printing process in a printing apparatus such as a printer, a copying machine, a facsimile or the like, the printing process is typically stopped immediately, or else at the earliest opportunity. Subjects for printing herein include text, photographs, computer graphics, and combinations of these as appropriate; collectively, these will be referred to herein as printed images. For example, if image printing for a plurality of printing papers is being processed, printing paper-feeding processes and image printing processes are stopped after the stop key is pressed. Additionally, sheets of printing paper previously fed from a printing paper feed tray are immediately ejected into a printing paper discharge tray. Recently, an image printing apparatus which enables printed images to be printed according to the number of copies, of which a copy is a unit of a plurality of printing papers, has also been proposed. An image printing apparatus including a finisher with a function of stapling on a per-copy basis after printing is also in practical use. When a stop key is pressed during the processing of image printing of printing of plural copies, image printing of all the printed images comprising a copy is not completed. Therefore, the stapling process is typically stopped as well.
In such a case, it is necessary to eliminate such problems as having sheets of printing paper left behind in the finisher as a consequence of the stapling process being stopped, after image printing is done. For this reason, a technique for enabling a stopping process to be executed at a boundary between copies in image printing processing when the stop key is pressed during image printing of plural copies is also proposed (see Patent Document 1).
[Patent Document 1] U.S. Pat. No. 5,771,103